Sunday Morning Musings - my style!

I love Sunday mornings - I love God - I love coffee - I love family - I love stamping and thus begins a new feature of my blog - Sunday Morning Musings.  Blog posts that will cover these topics and more - but probably - mostly COFFEE - 

No - really - I think it is.  I drink a minimum of 2 pots of coffee a day.  And my favorite flavor of coffee - is coffee flavored coffee :).  I own over 200 coffee mugs, I never ever ever run out of coffee.  I carry instant BOLD coffee packets in my purse to add to restaurant coffee.  I absolutely love chocolate covered coffee beans.   I have my original Starbucks Gol card when they were still black, not gold, and when I go into Starbucks the baristas are always amazed by it.  Hmmmm - is that enough evidence?  So as I sit here this morning doing my Bible study, drinking an amazing cup of French Roast coffee, and getting ready for church - I am praising God for the deliciousness of coffee (among many other blessings).  

So as far as stamping - I wanted to share an adorable tea bag holder (I need to adapt it to hold the Starbucks VIA packets - watch for that in the future.)  Here's a preview of it - 

Just click HERE for full details and I'll see you next Sunday with more musings!  ~Maureen

Great Masculine Card

Had to share this great masculine card that we made at the Fall Stamp Camp - I absolutely love this color combo - Very Vanilla, Basic Gray, Basic Black and Cherry Cobbler.  The set is SU's Guy Greetings - and it is full of wonderful pictures and sentiments to make some great cards for the men in your life.

But my favorite part of the card is this little box in the front.  You can see it better in the side view.  By adding it you get wonderful dimension on the card - and it still folds flat to mail.  You just fold the box, tape it, and attach it to the front of your card.  Then that works for the base to attach the circle with the car image.  Also, I really love the splatters that mimic oil spills - those were made from some of the terrific images in the Gorgeous Grunge set - a must have.

Hope this card inspires you to try a new card fold or technique.  Just keep those creative juices flowing!!  See you soon and Happy WEEKEND!!  ~Maureen

Here are some of the products used to make this card - click on any image to go to my site to order -

Gorgeous Grunge Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$18.00

Guy Greetings Photopolymer Stamp Set

$26.00

Cherry Cobbler 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$7.00

Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$7.00

Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$8.50

Basic Gray 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$7.00

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

$6.00

Typeset Specialty Designer Series Paper

$13.00

Paper Pumpkin embellished with Pretty Flowers

So, in case you have not heard - I LOVE SU's Paper Pumpkin kits - these kits come to your door every month and are complete with everything you need to make an amazing project which could be cards, or gift cards, or 3d - or who knows what will be in the future.  This month's kit is featured in this video - just to give you an idea of what you get each month - sorry it's so large - couldn't figure out how to make it smaller :(

What's even better - if you prepay for three month's right now during Sale-a-bration -you can save money and get a FREE Sale-a-bration product.

You can order directly through my website BY CLICKING HERE!
So I got my kit and it comes with so many goodies - but I don't like to waste a bit of it - so I decided to punch and create some beautiful flowers out of the scraps.  I punched these with the new Blossom Bunch Punch from the Occasions Catalog.

You can see here the areas of the scraps where I punched -

So after punching flowers from the scraps - I alternated colors - light, dark, light.  Then using my foam pad and the bottom of a closed sharpie pen - I pushed down gently in the center of each to get some curvature on the petals.

This is how they looked after pushing down, and before assembly.

Then I just put the layers together with glue dots and added a large pearl to the center to finish it.  You can see one made in the coral colors and another in the two shades of gray that are in the kit.

I then took the green scraps and punched some leaves using the Bird Builder punch.  Used a heart from the kit and stamped it, added the flowers, leaves and some of the twine.

And hung it in the middle of my seasonal wreath for now through February.  I love how the heart and flowers look - and hope you enjoyed this mini tuturial.

Stop back soon for more stamping ideas.   ~Maureen
Products used to make my flowers and heart - 

3-Month Prepaid Paper Pumpkin Subscription

$59.85

Blossom Bunch Punch

$18.00

Stampin' Pierce Mat

$5.00

Pearl Basic Jewels

$5.00

Bird Builder Punch

$18.00

Personal Post Monday! Gramma Day with Zamarah!

So I had Gramma Day with my 3rd grandchild for this round - Miss Zamarah!  Gramma days are really some of my favorite days!  Her Mommy, my daughter, Jenee - wanted to tag along - so it was the three of us!  Here they are enjoying our trip for lunch to Golden Corral. 

Zam ate amazing - which is not the norm for her, as she eats so little - but here she could pick all her favorites.  Plus she has a sweet tooth, and she could get whatever she wanted for dessert if she ate good - and she did!

Here she is with her dessert choices - and she ate every bit of it.  She and I share a passion for Cotton Candy!  So we love Golden Corral for that reason alone.

 After she ate hers - we got another to share - yum!!!!

 

Then it was off to the painting studio - she chose this little kitty to paint - and took her work very seriously.

I decided to paint my self a coffee travel mug and Jenee painted a tray!

Here she is with her finished project - she did a great job!!  The kitty looks like it has a mustache - so Zam said it was a French kitty!

Jenee painted the tray below to put jewelry in.

And I painted a Crazy Stamping Lady Mug with my favorite color for the lid - Yellow!

 Fun stuff -

And a fun day with Zamarah and her Mom!  Can't wait till next time Miss Z!! Love you oodles. ~Gramma

Beautiful Thank you!! Bringing back birthdays!

Gotta share this beautiful "thank you" note from my daughter, Heidi.  It was unexpected and really made my day - just reminded me of what it means to get a handmade card in the mail. 

So in the spirit of handmade cards - here is what I posted on my personal facebook page and am posting again -
I love to make cards, send cards and receive cards. So for 2016 - I am joining Shannon West in sending a REAL, hand stamped birthday card to everyone that sends me their birthday and address. My email link is on the right sidebar.  Shannon West, a Training Manager at Stampin' Up!, had a wonderful idea to send a birthday card to everyone who responded to her post. She thinks (and I agree) that Facebook has ruined birthday cards, so she wants to change that. She is inspiring MANY people to send REAL cards in the mail and using the hashtag. ‪#‎imbringingbirthdaysback‬. If your birthday was already this year - still send it please - I can always send a late card! 
Stampingly, Maureen

Crazy Stamping Ladies' Quarterly Team Shoebox Swap -

So last weekend I made my quarterly trek to Southern California for my Cards for a Cause event; and my downline team meeting, recognitions and shoebox swap.  Here are some of the ladies creating their beautiful cards.

In a shoebox swap everyone brings kits and all the products to make their card design - then we go around the room creating the cards and up with a bunch of great ideas and cards to use! Below are what we made in our group - credit given to each of the creators!

Annette's Card/Gift Card Holder

Karen's card

Betty's card

Diane's card

Paula's Card

Heidi's card

Maureen's Card

Sarah's Card

 

Happy Stamping!!! ~Maureen